Lock assemblies and systems for locking doors are widely known and used. FIG. 1 illustrates a multi-point door locking system 1, operatively connected to a conventional swinging door assembly 12, such as a French door assembly. The door assembly 12 generally comprises a primary, or active, door member 14, and a secondary, or passive, door member 16, mounted within a master door frame 18. The active door 14 is generally adapted for reciprocal sliding and/or swinging movement within the door frame 18, thereby enabling ingress and egress through the door assembly 12. Generally, the passive door 16 is also a movable member capable of sliding and/or swinging within the door frame 18. The active door 14 and passive door 16 are preferably mounted in side-by-side relation to each other, and each door 14,16 has a confronting face 22,24 confronting the other door 14,16. The locking system 1 generally includes an active lock 3 on the active door 14 and a passive lock 4 on the passive door 16. The passive lock 4 generally contains shoot bolts that engage the door frame at the top and bottom of the door 16 to lock the door 16 to the frame 18. The active lock 3 generally also contains shoot bolts that engage the door frame 18, as well as a latch bolt and a dead bolt that extend into the passive door 16 to lock the doors 14,16 together. Thus, by design, the passive door 16 is not intended to be opened unless and until the active door is opened, or at least has withdrawn the latch bolt and dead bolt locking the doors together.
However, prior art multi-point locking systems provide certain disadvantages. For example, prior locking systems often experience problems with controlling the locking and unlocking of the passive lock 4 when the active lock 3 is still locking the active door 14 to the passive door 16. Unlocking and/or opening the passive door 14 at such a time could cause damage to the active door 14, the passive door 16, or the locking mechanisms 3,4. The present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed above and other problems, and to provide advantages and aspects not provided by prior locking systems of this type. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.